A Contest of Wills
Word Count: 670
Prompts: Eyes – In the Bleak Midwinter – Guarding the Keep
Summary: Challenging Emily to a staring contest was the strangest thing Oz had ever done.
Everyone left me alone, Oz thought, his mind wandering in the gloom. He was in the garden, seated at a small table, with his breakfast of berries and cream (by the recommendation of Sharon-chan), and a pot full of tea that he had yet to pour. Even though everyone had said that they would join him for breakfast, they had all seemed to have forgotten.
It felt like everyone had abandoned him in a cold snow drift, leaving him to figure out how to cure his symptoms in the bleakness of boredom.
The only proof that someone had even been at the table was that Break's doll was sitting on a small black box. Staring at him with those not-so-blank eyes and devilish smile. There was a cup of poured tea sitting next to her. Oz just wasn't sure if Break had poured it then had gone to do something, or if he had poured it for Emily. Oz really hoped that it was the former.
What he really wanted to know was what was in the box Emily was sitting on. Break had to have done that purposely, wondering if Oz's childish impulses would hold out or break down.
Oz wasn't going to go down without a fight. He took a bite of the berries, which had begun to turn soggy since he had been waiting for someone else to arrive before he ate them.
But since no one had arrived, it had turned into berry mush without his knowledge.
He almost gagged on the slimy substance on his tongue, but he managed to swallow the spoonful, shuddering afterwards. He put the spoon back and pushed the bowl away from him.
He swore that Emily looked as if she was laughing at him.
Oz narrowed his eyes at her. "Do you have something to say?"
He immediately wished he could take those words right back. Talking to a doll. It was a terrible mental problem.
Thankfully, she didn't answer.
Oz's eyes moved to the box she was sitting on.
"So Break is trying to tempt me, is that it?" He asked, trying to tell himself that he was talking to himself and not to the doll.
She stared at him with those eyes, those eyes that he was just waiting to blink…
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He could go do something else. No one said that he had to stay here (no one else had even come). And the only company he had was a doll, who was sitting on a box his fingers were itching to open.
Even though – if he knew Break – it was probably just empty. Emily was faithfully guarding something for no reason.
He thought he saw her blink, but he knew that wasn't right.
"Then how about we do a deal?" Oz asked Emily, obviously losing his dignity. "If I win a staring match, then I get to open the box. If I lose…well, uh." Oz looked around to find something that might interest the doll. "Well, you get to keep the box, tell Break about my failure, and you can have this," he finished, pushing the bowl of berry mush towards her.
"All right? Ready? Start." Oz leaned forward and intently stared into the doll's eyes. It was rather strange, having a staring match that you knew you were going to lose. But he was bored enough to do so, and it occupied his mind from whatever was going on in his life right now.
Oz's mind reacted instinctively when he saw Emily blink, immediately saying that he won. Except once he thought through that, he also thought about how improbable that was.
Oz slowly moved away from the table, deciding that he was going to do something else now. Far away from the doll. He kindly admitted to himself that it had been a stupid game and that he had, of course, lost.
Because it wasn't possible at all.
It must have been a trick of the light.